Cassatt- Brecht comparison

What is it about the atmosphere, of the space and environment we inhabit, that fuels us to harness it? By 'harness' I mean to capture, by means of reproducing our experience, onto paper. Throughout human existence, we have sought to recreate experience with alternative mediums rather than the medium experienced first hand. There is a translation of textures. The personal interpretation of an experience shapes how one will recreate the atmosphere for a viewer, that will then affect how the viewer understands the experience for themselves. The transfer from experience to artist and then to a specific medium for a viewer to experience, completely deletes the reality of an experience. What pleasure does it bring to the viewer to observe a recreated experience that is atmospherically frozen in time and that hangs passively upon a wall like a dead corpse? In a sense we breathe a bit of life into art when we view it. But, what about art that one can experience first hand, with out some one else to translate the experience for us? Artists today seem to focus more on the ' here and now' rather than the 'there and then'. I found two artist's who contradict yet compliment each other in ways i think have helped me develop a better sense of how I experience art, upon the wall in a gallery and in everyday life. Mary Cassatt and Brecht, are two very different people with two very different views about art. I ask them to explain to me a recent piece of theirs, and they have been very kind to give me a great description of their process.

Mary Cassatt: I believe art is an intensive process. I do very much enjoy it, but one must be well versed in figure drawing. If you understand form and the function light plays upon it, then you can beautifully recreate anything. The human figure captures my attention because of the endless amount of expressions. My friends pose here and there and sometime I observe what they are creating. For example, my friend Lydia was painted at her embroidery frame, embroidering a piece of fabric. Speaking of fabric, i enjoy patterned textiles on interior decor, as well as clothing. The patterns are usually a gorgeous floral print. Flowers are another love of mine. Being outside in a garden is a heavenly experience. The array of colors I see in flowers and their exquisite perfumes make any outdoor experience much more decadent and enjoyable. That's quite frankly the way I create art. My art is inspired by the simply decadent, little pleasures, from every day life. I want to capture the beautiful moments in a flower garden, by a pond, in an opera and even a mother with her child.

Some believe I base my mother and child paintings on Mary with the baby Jesus, as seen in religious painting. Though my art history knowledge may contract a similar composition, I don't necessarily base my work on art history. I believe there is sentimental quality of a mother nurturing her child that is like nothing else. I try to capture the bond and the sweetness in those moments. I also depict women independently or with a child to emphasize women's strength and independence.

My piece, "Portrait of Madame J.", that I completed recently is one that communicates both independence and beauty. Her simple environment is embellished by the plush cream arm chair that she is seated. Its creamy eggnog material is covered a plum colored floral print that dances some what sporadically upon the chairs surface. Her garments, that cover her from the next down, are a midnight violet that contrasts the cream and pulls out the plum hues. Madame J.'s intense gaze to the ground signifies her attentive thought process. Her experience is comfortable yet attentive. She awaits an event with patience as we can see in her relaxed posture. The atmosphere sheds a cool light upon her rosy pale skin and her raspberry lips. A white lacy bow accents her neckline. she is a gorgeous, sincere and independent woman. The oil paint allows blue shadows to come from the base of the painting, and the paints' sumptuous texture leaves a dramatic contrast of colors, yet the paintings texture is woven together beneath a dream-like haze. That is How I see my "Portrait of Madame J.".

Brecht: I believe every object is an event and that every event has an object-like quality to it. I can observe this in my very own apartment. All of my objects have performed for me in some way. I have performed with the objects in someway and at some time as well. If one were to isolate their uses of kitchen utensils and lights switches, for example, the act of turning on the light or swirling the pasta with a fork becomes an 'event'. The "swirling of the pasta" is now a piece of art. The art work is essentially the art 'object'. Its an object of art, I believe, because there is an interaction with material.

The piece " Three Chair Events" I showed recently at the Martha Jackson Gallery for the Environments, Situations, Spaces exhibit, further illustrates my belief that art happens in every environment, situation and space. In order to fully convey my vision, I evaluated my apartment's interior belongings. I searched for objects that I interacted with on a daily level. Bed. Couch. Chair. Light switch. Spoon. Bowl. Microwave. Faucet. After I noted my interactions, I began to think about a public venue. I realized many of the items are for private use. However, the chair was the object that I was able to apply to any public space. It would illicit the most uninhibited interactions.

The different spaces of the gallery are different platforms for particular situations. For example, the entrance, where I wait to meet a friend... I wait and mind my own business, while I casually observe people walking by to pass the time. Once I greet my friend, we enter into the gallery 'space'. Our voices dim down and our focus becomes the pristine white walls, where the 'art' is displayed. The transition of environment defines different spaces and situations.Since the work operated in multiple spaces, I decided to use three identical wooden chairs to unify the work. The different spaces I chose were spaces gallery visitors would enter. The exterior of the gallery at the entrance, the gallery interior, and the restroom were the three spaces I chose to place each chair individually.

Though the chairs were identical in form, they varied in color. The chair propped outside the door was painted a creamy mustard. The chair in the gallery was painted an eggshell white. The chair in the restroom was painted a chalkboard black. The colors I applied to the chairs' surfaces serve to communicate their intended use. The sunny mustard yellow is welcoming and fitting for an outdoor chair. The same goes for the other two chairs. They are nothing out of the ordinary. They serve to illicit their everyday event. Everything from placement to the mellow paint, to the mass-produced, worn-down, wooden forms, resulted in gallery-goers using the chairs. And, as a result, the three wooden chairs conducted beautiful interactions with gallery visitors. The documented interactions with the three chairs became the "Three Chair Events".

In conclusion, we have two accomplished artists, who see the art object in completely different ways. Brecht would look at a painting of Cassatt's and say that the act of sitting in the plush arm chair is an interaction with a material. Why recreate what is already occurring? the art exists in that moment. The act of painting that moment is overkill and the reality and experience of that particular moment is dead. While Cassatt might see Brecht as extremely controversial. She is completely against all things abstract or out of bounds. Though Brecht's thinking may be out of the box, however, Cassatt and Brecht would both realize that they are making art to capture an experience of reality. Neither are surreal, they are both striving to capture a realness about everyday life. The realness of the human experience, our environment and our relationship to space around us. Textures of the human experience will always be interpreted differently by all walks of life, but the artist is someone who highlights the experience with our environmental textures and translates their beliefs into work.